What part of Eyjafjallajökull don't you understand?!

Our first stop, Iceland.
"I thought you were going to Africa?!" - despite my geography knowledge being fairly poor I am aware that Canada via Iceland isn't the most direct route to South Africa. However, when booking flights to Vancouver to see Ben's grandparents we noticed that IcelandAir offer up to a week of free stopover, so we thought why not break the long flight up with 5 days of exploring a country my Dad has raved about for ages.

Taken on route to the Glacier

A quick sum up our 5 days:
- Landed, picked up hire car drove to Selfoss (largest city in southern Iceland, population 6,000)
- Drove 400mi round trip from Selfoss to Jökulsárlón Glacier.
- Left Selfoss to drive the 'Golden Circle'. Stopped at Kerid Crater, Gullfoss Waterfall, Geysir and Thingvellir National Park. Finished in Reykjavik.
- Explored Reykjavik in the morning, visited the Blue Lagoon in the afternoon then went a little further to Grindavík for Lobster Soup (Icelandic classic) for dinner.
- Spent morning walking around Reykjavik which is a tiny city in comparison to what we are used to. Spent afternoon in our guesthouse packing up and planning our Canada trip.
- Visited the landmark church Hallgrimskirkja, checked out and headed to the airport!

We're nearly ready...!

“Have you got everything ready?” that’s all I’m getting asked at the moment. The answer I give back is of course “No!” but then why would I be? We don’t leave until Thursday.

This post will share a little bit about what we’re going to do, why we’re doing it and what this blog will hopefully be. It’s being written by me (Ben), meaning the English is only to a GCSE grade B standard (thank you Madame DuPlooy) and it will probably have no structure to it whatsoever, seeing as all I’ve really written in the last 7 years since leaving school is a monthly Fantasy Football report at work. Anyway, here goes…

For as long as I can remember I’ve had a passion for Africa. It probably stems from hearing stories about my Mum’s upbringing in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia at the time) as well as a love of seeing and hearing about the sheer beauty of the natural landscape. I first got my chance to go when I visited my cousins in South Africa in 2010. Three weeks wasn’t enough time to even scratch the surface of such an amazing place, so it left me with a strong desire to go back.